Supervolcanoes Within an Ancient Volcanic Province in Arabia Terra, Mars

Several irregularly shaped craters located within Arabia Terra, Mars represent a new type of highland volcanic construct and together constitute a previously unrecognized martian igneous province. Similar to terrestrial supervolcanoes, these low-relief paterae display a range of geomorphic features related to structural collapse, effusive volcanism, and explosive eruptions. Extruded lavas contributed to the formation of enigmatic highland ridged plains in Arabia Terra. Outgassed sulfur and erupted fine-grained pyroclastics from these calderas likely fed the formation of altered, layered sedimentary rocks and fretted terrain found throughout the equatorial region. Discovery of a new type of volcanic construct in the Arabia volcanic province fundamentally changes the picture of ancient volcanism and climate evolution on Mars. Other eroded topographic basins in the ancient Martian highlands that have been dismissed as degraded impact craters should be reconsidered as possible volcanic constructs formed in an early phase of widespread, disseminated magmatism on Mars

Acompanhamento ambulatorial de pacientes com mielomeningocele em um hospital pediátrico

A mielomeningocele constitui a mais freqüente malformação congênita do sistema nervoso e, a despeito de sua complexidade e acometimento de múltiplos órgãos, é compatível a sobrevida prolongada. Por esses motivos, o acompanhamento de pacientes com essa malformação assume vital importância no que diz respeito à qualidade de sua sobrevida. Com o objetivo de avaliar a qualidade do acompanhamento de portadores de spina bifida cística tratados em um hospital pediátrico, 54 pacientes foram examinados e seus familiares entrevistados. A inexistência de um centro multidisciplinar de tratamento de portadores de defeito de fechamento do tubo neural na cidade do Rio de Janeiro obrigou os pacientes a se deslocarem para locais geograficamente distantes entre si em busca de tratamento complementar em várias especialidades correlatas, com reflexos negativos na qualidade de sobrevida. Desta maneira, apenas uma quarta parte dos pacientes era capaz de se locomover e a chamada deambulação comunitária era praticamente nenhuma. Apenas 2/3 se submetiam regularmente a fisioterapia e apenas a metade era regularmente acompanhada por ortopedistas. Quase 50% dos pacientes não foram orientados a procurar assistência urológica e 75% apresentavam incontinência urinária. A incidência de infecções urinárias de repetição foi 72,2%. As complicações e intercorrências neurocirúrgicas propriamente ditas tiveram incidências comparáveis às observadas na literatura. Concluímos que a qualidade de sobrevida dos pacientes estudados é significativamente afetada por fatores sócio-econômicos e pela ausência de centros multidisciplinares de tratamento.Myelomeningocele is the most common congenital malformation of the nervous system and despite its complexity and involvement of multiple organs is compatible with long survival. The peculiar characteristics of this malformation expose myelomeningocele patients to acute and chronic care problems with effects in quality of survival. In order to evaluate the quality of the follow-up of spina bifida patients in a pediatric hospital, the authors examined 54 patients attending the neurosurgical outpatient unity of a pediatric hospital. The lack of a multidisciplinary spina bifida clinic in Rio de Janeiro forced the patients to pursuit for complimentary medical and paramedical care outside the hospital with significant effects in the quality of survival. In consequence, only 25% of the patients were able to walk and community ambulation was nearly absent. Only 66.6% had a regular rehabilitation program and nearly 50% had routine orthopedics consultations. Almost half of the patients had no urological referral at all and 75% were incontinent, with recurrent urinary infections ranging 72.2%. The rates of neurosurgical complications were similar to those observed in the literature. We concluded that the quality of survival of patients with neural tube defects is strongly influenced by the adverse socio-economical conditions and the lack of a spina bifida multidisciplinary clinic

IL-17 in the immunopathogenesis of spondyloarthritis

pondyloarthritis (SpA) is a term that refers to a group of inflammatory diseases that includes psoriatic arthritis, axial SpA and nonradiographic axial SpA, reactive arthritis, enteropathic arthritis and undifferentiated SpA. The disease subtypes share clinical and immunological features, including joint inflammation (peripheral and axial skeleton); skin, gut and eye manifestations; and the absence of diagnostic autoantibodies (seronegative). The diseases also share genetic factors. The aetiology of SpA is still the subject of research by many groups worldwide. Evidence from genetic, experimental and clinical studies has accumulated to indicate a clear role for the IL-17 pathway in the pathogenesis of SpA. The IL-17 family consists of IL-17A, IL-17B, IL-17C, IL-17D, IL-17E and IL-17F, of which IL-17A is the best studied. IL-17A is a pro-inflammatory cytokine that also has the capacity to promote angiogenesis and osteoclastogenesis. Of the six family members, IL-17A has the strongest homology with IL-17F. In this Review, we discuss how IL-17A and IL-17F and their cellular sources might contribute to the immunopathology of SpA